The Greatest Need in the Church Today!

According to the Center for Study for Global Christianity, only 5% of the pastors in the church today are trained. 2.2 million pastoral leaders (and as many as 3.4 million by some estimates) presently minister with no training whatsoever. Even in Australia, my research has shown, that 30% of pastors are untrained. These stats are shocking but true. Even if every College/Seminary in the world scholarshiped every pastor starting a new church in 2019 we would still only meet half the demand.

There is an insatiable need for training pastors globally.

I can’t help but think and believe the world we live in would be a much better place if pastors had a solid grasp of what the Bible teaches. Bible teachers have been studying scripture for 2000 years and our knowledge of God and society continues to grow. Teachers that answer important questions about the character and nature of God, who we are as people and the society we live in.

If our pastors and leaders don’t have the opportunity to learn from 2000 years of study, we tie their hands behind their backs. Let’s take the shackles off our pastors and leaders and give them access to the resources that already exist.

So where do we start?

We start by training our pastors and leaders to discover the heart and mind of God and how to communicate that heart and mind to the people of God.

Then, those pastors and leaders impart the heart and mind of God to believers. Believers who then road-test the truth of God’s word outside the cocoon of church and take it into the real world. Taking life’s journey one day at a time and incorporating the truth of what they have learned into the real world of their existence.

Finally, believers can reach out with confidence to their neighbours, friends, family and colleagues with the reality of what we have learned and practised about the heart and mind of God.

It all starts with our pastors and our leaders being taught by devoted Bible teachers about the heart and mind of God. Can you imagine how different the world would be today if we double our trained pastors and leaders from 5% to 10%?

I believe the greatest need we have in the church today is for our pastors and leaders to be taught about the heart and mind of God by devoted Bible teachers.